JoePa is Going to Die on the Football Field

Hey, I love Joe Paterno. He's one of the greatest football coaches in college football history, if not the best considering he's the winningest coach in Division I-A history with 383 victories and his longevity at Penn State is a remarkable achievement. He's been involved in Penn State football even as an assistant since 1950. Think about that for a minute. That's 58 years he's been at State College yelling at college kids trying to turn these players into a solid college football team. Of course, I don't think he's actually coached a game for the Nittany Lions in about 10 years while posing more as a figure head for the university lately. Everybody knows defensive coordinator Tom Bradley has really been coaching the team the past decade, but everyone ignores that fact because it's JoePa. But I've also said in jest that JoePa is going to die on the football field...and with the news that came out today, it might just happen.

Penn State and JoePa agreed to another three years of coaching. That makes him the coach of the program through 2011. JoePa turns 82 this Sunday. 82 years of age! He has to be the oldest coach in the history of college football and if he isn't, he probably will be in 2011. We are talking about a coach that made more headlines in the news about whether or not he would be on the sideline or in the coaches box this year then actually coaching decisions.

I don't think Penn State will ever tell JoePa no, and I don't think JoePa will ever say he doesn't want to coach. And since we have these two things happenings, he is going to die on the football field...during a game sometime in the future. It'll be one of the biggest stories to cover in years. ESPN will be there for weeks after and Lee Corso will be crying like a baby. It'll be a tragic and incredibly sad day in Happy Valley as well as everywhere around the country, but I think he would be happy with it all because I don't think there's any other place JoePa would want to be when his time is up then on a football field doing what he loved.